Things I do like

[GMX]

I do like receiving the box of 7000 of food/poo bags much earlier than anticipated.  According to the seller they should be with me between Friday and Monday, they came this afternoon

What is even better, the seller has six different identities on eBay, in one, he'd turned my three best offers, then i found his other selling IDs.  The unit price per roll, of my 7000 was considerably lower than my three refused offers. I'd been offering him £1.80, then £1.90 and finally £2 per roll.  All of which he declined. The 7000 work out at £1.24 per roll  They're exactly the same size, type  and brand, from a business point of view, I wonder why did he declined the higher offers?

[Lenny]

🙌Finally found a sattelite and terrestrial aerial installer whom is happy to work with me on completing installation of the items I've purchased myself to fit on the roof of the house.

link: 

😔despite there being absolutely nothing wrong with any of the equipment I purchased (in fact i researched the market for optimum items) nor anything wrong with the roof of the house;

The first two installation companies I contacted to request the work got very disoriented and subdued 😣😯😠 when I explained that I had purchased the items already and just need it all installed, they weren't interested atall and almost acted out like they caught me in bed with there wife 😁

but this guy is a true gentleman and has a good interest in his job, fully understands my goal much like a Kevin McCloud of the home entertainment design.

He arrived today and we went through the whole plan together with a cup of tea and all parts spread at the kitchen table, im delighted too that he was impressed with my efforts to create a good clean install as most customers don't know what they want, but I was the opposite end of the scale installing all the options everywhere 😀

So I've booked a day off work and we're going to get installing together👍im still paying the guy but I enjoy tagging along in this type of process.

end result will be an internet network cable, twin sattelite feed and a terrestrial cable feed running seamlessly inside the attic to each of the bedrooms upstairs aswell as the downstairs living room resulting in all entertainment options covered throughout the home without a cable in sight.

Can't wait 😛

[Lenny]

3 hours ago, GMX said:

I do like receiving the box of 7000 of food/poo bags much earlier than anticipated.  According to the seller they should be with me between Friday and Monday, they came this afternoon

What is even better, the seller has six different identities on ebay, in one, he'd turned my three best offers, then i found his other selling IDs.  The unit price per roll, of my 7000 was considerably lower than my three refused offers. I'd been offering him £1.80, then £1.90 and finally £2 per roll.  All of which he declined. The 7000 work out at £1.24 per roll  They're exactly the same size, type  and brand, from a business point of view, I wonder why did he declined the higher offers?

Great deal there, 

seems strange though investing much time in sourcing lowest cost poo bags I'm impressed 👍

[kpg]

I like still feeling the effects of the snorkel delete 3 days on.

[GMX]

Brandy and I had a very changeable weather morning stroll, we went out in the moderate rain, then it stopped and got a bit blustery, then came some uncommitted drizzle which abated slowly, only to be replaced by bright sunshine.

The combination of wet roads and bright sunshine made the subsequent drive into town, interesting  I couldn't believe how many other drivers were not wearing sunglasses and were squinting and peering, and of those, we were almost T-boned several times at junctions.  Where they obviously couldn't see where they going

I've just returned from dropping my Mum off at the hospital for an x-ray and then called in at the vets to ascertain how the repeat prescription procedure works.  It's the first time in her life, Brandy has needed ongoing medication.  As her vet had already put on her notes, that she'll need Metacam for life, it was quite straightforward,  I was asked how much i would like. She'd initially had a 10ml bottle, they do bottles all the way up to 5 litres. I've opted for the 32ml bottle, which is roughly a month's worth.

When she's down to the last couple of doses, just order another bottle, either by phone to collect or come down and collect without ordering first.. Every 6 months she'll have review with her vet and he'll also do a blood test

 

15 hours ago, Lenny said:

Great deal there, 

seems strange though investing much time in sourcing lowest cost poo bags I'm impressed 👍

Poo bags are something I need everyday (like bread and milk), both Foci have a roll in their respected gloveboxes, by each external door there is a roll, for little "I failed to make it outside/ to the litter tray  accidents" I have a roll in both the upstairs and downstairs halls.

Brandy uses a couple of bags per walk, I remove Molly's deposits between litter changes with them, not to mention they're the right size to put cooled used oil and cooked food waste into for the wheelie bin. Occasionally I use them as they designed to be used as freezer bags, for individual portions for Brandy, when I bulk buy offal or make her liver cake 

The local Council has decided from October 10th all poo and droppings, like food waste currently is, need to be double bagged.

 

[AlexBartlam]

i do like my half days at work on a friday 12:30 every friday 

[jmurray01]

I do like that after almost a thousand miles of driving, the new Continentals on the 405 have now fully "bed in" and have fantastic grip even being thrown into corners at high speed.  Despite being winter tyres, their performance on warm sunny days is better than most summer/all-season tyres I've used.  Perhaps the fuel economy and wear will be a bit poorer in dry/warm conditions, but I'll take that compromise when the grip is as good as it is!  I'll definitely be putting four of those on the Focus when its Nokian's wear out.

[chrisroberson99]

Wow you do to a lot of miles!

I think I've done about 300 miles in the last 2 weeks after passing my test, and that's a lot for me! Starting to become the school taxi though so it will increase...

[jmurray01]

16 minutes ago, chrisroberson99 said:

Wow you do to a lot of miles!

I think I've done about 300 miles in the last 2 weeks after passing my test, and that's a lot for me! Starting to become the school taxi though so it will increase...

Yeah, I average around 1,000-1,500 miles per month.  Around half of that is traveling back and forth to work, and the other half is just SD&P.

Speaking of tyres though, will you be getting a set of winters for your Focus?  Supposedly this winter is meant to be a bad one, although I don't know how much truth there is in that!

[chrisroberson99]

No I doubt it, dad has never believed in them and winters here aren't severe enough most of the time to warrant them. Hopefully I'll be changing my wheels in the not too distant anyway!

[GMX]

I do like that I've finally worked out the correct number of necks that Brandy will eat in go for her tea, now she's older she as doesn't eat as much she used to. I keep putting too many in her bowl and she leaves them: or not enough and she's complains.   As I thaw them to order the night before, there's then a 3 hour delay whilst we wait for further necks to thaw

33 minutes ago, jmurray01 said:

Yeah, I average around 1,000-1,500 miles per month.

That's what  I do per Focus, per year

22 minutes ago, chrisroberson99 said:

No I doubt it, dad has never believed in them and winters here aren't severe enough most of the time to warrant them.

Winter tyres aren't just for severe weather, they come into their own when the road temperature falls below 8°C

[jmurray01]

9 minutes ago, GMX said:

That's what  I do per Focus, per year

Winter tyres aren't just for severe weather, they come into their own when the road temperature falls below 8°C

Good heavens, that is low.  But then again, you work from home and I imagine don't have to travel far for shops etc... 

As for winter tyres, you are absolutely right Ghana.  Especially below zero, winter tyres are invaluable due to their softer rubber.

[TomsFocus]

They don't allow winters in Surrey, that'd be far too common!

I'm amazed at your low mileages though...  How do you only do 1000 miles a year Ghana?    I barely go anywhere and do 10-12k a year in the Focus!  I've done 1500 miles in the ST in 4 months purely just being a weekend car.

[jmurray01]

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

They don't allow winters in Surrey, that'd be far too common!

I'm amazed at your low mileages though...  How do you only do 1000 miles a year Ghana?    I barely go anywhere and do 10-12k a year in the Focus!  I've done 1500 miles in the ST in 4 months purely just being a weekend car.

That was per Focus, so considering he has two that'd be 2,000 miles per year - although I agree even that is still minuscule by comparison to my (or your) mileage!  One thing I noticed though, is that I thought modern diesels were only worthwhile if you had a five-figure annual mileage, so I'm surprised Ghana didn't opt for a petrol model...  Or maybe I'm wrong, which is a strong possibility!

[Lenny]

When your on nightshift every third week finishing at 7am on Thursday morning.

Then

Friday nights are 8hrs triple paid optional hours with no rota 🙌😀

there's been lads took week off holidays but worked the Friday 😂

 

[TomsFocus]

8 hours ago, jmurray01 said:

That was per Focus, so considering he has two that'd be 2,000 miles per year - although I agree even that is still minuscule by comparison to my (or your) mileage!  One thing I noticed though, is that I thought modern diesels were only worthwhile if you had a five-figure annual mileage, so I'm surprised Ghana didn't opt for a petrol model...  Or maybe I'm wrong, which is a strong possibility!

Ah, I didn't realise he had 2 of them!  I can't keep up with all the animals and plants he has, let alone cars! As you say though, still very low!

I wouldn't say 1.8TDCi's are modern diesels, he'll be slightly better off in that than a 1.8 petrol even at low mileage, no DPF, slightly cheaper tax, ~45mpg and not much to go wrong.    And of course plenty of diesel torque for moving around all of the animals and fresh produce.  

[Cookey09]

I do like having a bacon sandwich in bed, Chocolate cake, a few model cars, pack of Kopperberg's and £40 waiting for me when I got up to my birthday this morning all from my girlfriend 😎

@GMX I never reply to any of your posts about Brandy, but I do like reading the notifications about her and how well she is doing when they come through to my gmail. 👍🏻🐶

[TomsFocus]

Happy birthday James!

Didn't realise they made a Mk2.5 Focus model....hmmm, wonder if there's a Titanium version!

[GMX]

12 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

They don't allow winters in Surrey, that'd be far too common!

I'm amazed at your low mileages though...  How do you only do 1000 miles a year Ghana?    I barely go anywhere and do 10-12k a year in the Focus!  I've done 1500 miles in the ST in 4 months purely just being a weekend car.

Winter is probably known as Autumn Extra in Surrey

It averages 1000 miles per Focus. Between MOTs the Mk1 did 957 miles and the Mk2 was 1202 miles (two months of which was under it's previous owner)

Working from home cuts down my mileage significantly, there was a time once, when if I drove 80K: I'd be having a lean year  All my regular trips are very local, the only one that is further afield is Brandy's food supplier, which is 11 miles, every couple of months.  Of course it can suddenly be upset by collecting something off eBay from say Nottingham, like a pair of monitors, when more mileage is done in one trip than in the last six months

As a consequence my servicing is done by the calender, on mileage both Foci have oil changes on 400-500 miles, and the annual services work out at everyone else's monthly mileage. 

10 hours ago, jmurray01 said:

That was per Focus, so considering he has two that'd be 2,000 miles per year - although I agree even that is still minuscule by comparison to my (or your) mileage!  One thing I noticed though, is that I thought modern diesels were only worthwhile if you had a five-figure annual mileage, so I'm surprised Ghana didn't opt for a petrol model...  Or maybe I'm wrong, which is a strong possibility!

It's around 12-13K mark when diesel come into it's own. 

The Mk2 is a 1.8 TDCi Estate on a 06 plate and the Mk1 is a 1.6 Zetec 16v Hatchback on a 54 plate

When I went looking for a Mk2 Estate last year and had narrowed my list down to five to look at. The one I went with was significantly cheaper than all the others, I was expecting to find an IC issue or something majorly wrong with it.  They were no DTCs present and despite spending 3 hours painstakingly trying to find out "a major hidden fault" I couldn't find any.  The seller only wanted £1K for it, all the others were £2-3.5K. Either he didn't know it was worth more, or he did, and didn't care. I was lured by the fault free very low price.  I wasn't actually planning on continuing with diesel, the other four estate on my list were petrol 2 litres (3 Ghias and one Titanium)

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Ah, I didn't realise he had 2 of them!  I can't keep up with all the animals and plants he has, let alone cars! As you say though, still very low!

I wouldn't say 1.8TDCi's are modern diesels, he'll be slightly better off in that than a 1.8 petrol even at low mileage, no DPF, slightly cheaper tax, ~45mpg and not much to go wrong.    And of course plenty of diesel torque for moving around all of the animals and fresh produce.  

Two Foci, a diesel estate and a petrol hatchback, 

Brandy the dog and Molly the cat.

Without going outside and counting what is cropping now:- nine varieties of tomato plant, three of winter squash, two of rhubarb, three of potato, two of shallot, two of beetroot, four of carrot but only one of purple sprouting broccoli and one of sweetcorn

A little known requirement I have when buying cars, and am probably alone with: is can I get 10 x 50L sacks of manure and still get Brandy in her  crate in the back? 

36 minutes ago, Cookey09 said:

I do like having a bacon sandwich in bed, Chocolate cake, a few model cars, pack of Kopperberg's and £40 waiting for me when I got up to my birthday this morning all from my girlfriend 😎

@GMX I never reply to any of your posts about Brandy, but I do like reading the notifications about her and how well she is doing when they come through to my gmail. 👍🏻🐶

Happy birthday James

 

[TomsFocus]

Oh, fewer animals than I remembered, for some reason I thought you had birds and fish as well, not sure where I got that from then!    That's a lot of veg though...  Do you have some sort of schedule for planting and watering etc or just remember it all?

I often wonder how Monty Don remembers everything he has to do at Long Meadow...  

[Cookey09]

Thanks guys. I'll keep my eye out for a mk2.5 TIT. 👍🏻

[GMX]

The birds and fish often mentioned, are likely to be Brandy meals, (chicken, grouse, duck, sardines, sprats, salmon, tuna etc), although I've probably mentioned the local owls, pigeons, dunnocks, small birds ( that the censor software doesn't like) in grey, blue and great varieties. 

There was also Bunty the cat until recently too.

After a while, through habit, you learn what to plant when.

All my vegetable beds have drip hoses connected to a timer on the tap with a rain/humidity sensor on the garage roof.. So it won't irrigate if it's raining or it has fallen earlier that day.  Whereas I manually water all the baskets and tubs every day with butt water, twice or more during hot dry sunny spells.  Liquid fertiliser is applied manually with a watering can, every day too, for the tomatoes and squashes at a diluted rate (roughly half the normal rate) and all others get it weekly at the normal dose

I have planned, but not ordered the parts yet, to build a computer controlled irrigation system, which will actually measure the precipitation and soil moisture on each bed, calculate each vegetables actual requirement and adjust accordingly on an ongoing hourly basis.  The tech for this used to be prohibitive for anyone other than a massive agricultural enterprise, it can be done now for around for £250   Which will be a vast improvement on each bed getting the same, even if they differing requirements

[iantt]

I do like having a play with  the new sync 3 

[Stoney871]

Looks like Windows 3 graphics.

Hope it works better than it looks.

Sent from my SM-G930F

[iantt]

Should work better, not Microsoft this time.